There's a 'secret forest' in Saskatoon and anyone can visit

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With over 400 acres of woodland, the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is one of Saskatoon’s best-kept secrets.

Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas’ Julia Adamson said the area holds charm in every season.

“It's just a Christmas card to walk through in the wintertime. And it's just a wonderful place for walking in the summer.”

She said 474 acres of mixed woodlands were located at the city's southwest edge, just off Valley Road. It started as a tree nursery in 1972.

The greenspace, owned by the City of Saskatoon’s land branch, is open to the public and houses a dog park and several trails to explore.

Richard White, a board member of the Friends, says the afforestation areas are a place where people of all ages to gather, connect with nature and enjoy a boreal forest type of woodland within the city.

“Here, we have the opportunity to have such a large and semi-wild natural area right within an urban area and that’s very rare, certainly on the Prairies,” White said.

“We have a really unique opportunity to develop this as a special spot, just like we have Wanuskewin and other spots in the city that attract not only locals but visitors.”

WHO WAS RICHARD ST BARBE BAKER?

The urban park’s namesake was a local conservationist and one of the first students at the University of Saskatchewan, Adamson said.

“Think of David Suzuki and David Attenborough, they kind of have it made because they're more modern. They have the internet. They have jet planes and everything. Richard St. Barbe Baker did very similar things between the two World Wars,” Adamson said, noting that Baker had to travel the ocean and stay in touch with his contacts by mail.

She said Baker was the key at starting up the International Tree Foundation in over 100 countries and inspired others to form similar organizations.

“So he was responsible for planting billions of trees worldwide,” she said.

“He had a real tie with Saskatoon and credits it with his changing course in his life.”

He was given an honorary law doctorate from the U of S in 1971.

“It was here, as an affiliate of Emmanuel College, that he recognized for the first time the dangers of wind erosion and the value of trees in preventing the formation of deserts and their advance into the grasslands and forests,” vice president of research, B. W. Currie, said during the presentation.

According to university archives, Baker was part of the second class in the school’s history in 1910.

“At the age of 74, he rode on horseback from the most northerly point in New Zealand to the most southerly, a distance of 1,400 miles, lecturing at schools and to other groups on forest conservation,” university archives recorded.

“He just had a ripple effect with so many people. And that's part of our film,” Adamson said, referring to an upcoming showing of a documentary looking at Baker’s life and the impact he had.

The Legacy of Saskatoon’s Secret Forest will be shown at the Remai Modern on July 22.

Adamson said they hoped that more people would come to know about the area and use it.

“There's no reason to be Saskatoon’s best-kept secret or a secret for us anymore. We want people to know and be able to come up here and enjoy themselves.”